LIV TOVE

I did this last year and the year before that here at blackcigarette, so why not this year aswell?
This is what I've been up to in 2009.


( so many pictures you can't even believe it. )

Hope this isn't TL;DR! I came across a really interesting post on Tumblr today and thought i would share/put its subject matter up for discussion. The post talks about a recent interview with Lady Gaga in the LA Times. Here's a couple of extracts from the story:

Her new songs address serious themes like women's shame about their bodies and the need for open communication in relationships; her often physically distorting costumes show that the pursuit of the feminine ideal is far from natural. Her commitment to confront the changing notion of what's "natural" puts Gaga on the same road traveled by artists she admires, such as the photographer Cindy Sherman. Her frank talk about how female artists aren't expected to write their own songs or about how young women are afraid to ask for what they need from their sexual partners inches her toward a new articulation of feminism.

..."The great thing about Gaga is she always want to push for the most extreme option," Card said. "She's brave enough to let herself be a canvas for a designer to go and really express themselves. Nothing is off limits! With Rihanna and Beyoncé there is an end result of desirability and unattainable sexiness, whereas Gaga is a really interesting bridge between the desirable and the grotesque. She's not at all worried about looking ridiculous or hideous; actually, I think she thrives off it."

And here's a couple of extracts from the brilliant post on Tumblr:

i feel like there are limits, maybe, to how “hideous” an extremely skinny blonde white girl can be considered...to put it another way: picture a fat woman, or a black woman, or a Latina woman, or a fat black Latina woman, doing ANYTHING that lady gaga has ever done, and tell me people would still be talking about her as some kind of subversive artiste...tell me 95% of the commentary about her outside maybe the feminist blogosphere wouldn’t be ridicule or disgust.

...or to put it another way: white skinny bodies are allowed to be art. you see this all the fucking time in the twee/hipster zones of the world/internet, soft-focus photos in sepia tones with size 2 AT MOST people standing in for melancholy, or wistfulness, or love, or whatever. you don’t see fat girls lying in a field of daisies wearing fishnets and reading haruki murakami next to a picnic spread under a parasol. because then the viewer, it’s assumed, would get distracted by their fatness. skinny bodies (& white bodies) are allowed to turn themselves into things because they are presumed to be blank slates. they’re neutral. fatness already symbolizes things in our culture - laziness, sloth, greed - so it’s not allowed to symbolize other things.

or another way: lady gaga is allowed to play at being grotesque because it’s understood that she is making a choice to be grotesque; fat, non-white, or otherwise atypical bodies already belong to the realm of the grotesque. the choice is made for them. whether it’s as unfuckable (fat women, women with visible disabilities) or inherently sexualized (black and Latina women) or some weird combination of fuckable but not sexual (asian women) or just grotesque and unworthy (trans women).

I think the critique on Tumblr brings up some really interesting and valid points with particular reference to the way we see things on the internet in terms of body types/ethnicities represented in the art and photography we post on our journals, or write about in our blogs, or favourite on Tumblr.

So discuss if you wish: Lady Gaga and her image, representations of 'controversial' women in pop culture, white/thin bodies v everyone else.

( Read more... )

Download the AAC file here. It contains album artwork and chapters for each song for your iPod or Zune player. Just make a playlist and drag the file in. I can't figure out how to make iTunes recognize it as a podcast. Can someone help me with that??

The aim of this podcast is to highlight my favorite music of 2009. I did it again, track 09 is from 2008. Track 35 is technically from 2008 but it was released in the US in 2009.

01 - Superdrag - Slow To Anger
02 - Amber Oak - Audrey
03 - Grass Widow - Cut It Off
04 - Vanilla Ride - Hilma
05 - Lissy Trullie - Money
06 - Dog Day - Rome
07 - Silversun Pickups - Substitution
08 - The Jezabels - Electric Lover
09 - The Wendy Darlings - Enormous Pop
10 - Tegan & Sara - Hell
11 - Sonic Youth - Poison Arrow
12 - Tiny Masters Of Today - Skeletons
13 - Lacrosse - We Are Kids
14 - Girls - Lust For Life
15 - Regina Spektor - Two Birds
16 - Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing
17 - Very Truly Yours - Reminders
18 - Lovers - Imaginary Women
19 - Karen O And The Kids - All Is Love
20 - The Wave Pictures - Bye Bye Bumble Belly
21 - Immaculate Machine - You Destroyer
22 - Liechtenstein - Roses In The Park
23 - Iran - Buddy (Feat. Kyp Malone)
24 - Cameron Mcgill & What Army - Minor Suite
25 - Marissa Nadler - Brittle, Crushed & Torn
26 - Clues - Haarp
27 - The Legends - Always The Same
28 - The Joy Formidable - Austere
29 - Yo La Tengo - Nothing To Hide
30 - The Maccabees - Kiss And Resolve
31 - Come On Like Gangbusters - Birds On The Power Line
32 - Dreamdate - Wait For You
33 - Cola Jet Set - El Sueño De Mi Vida
34 - Eat Lights Become Lights - Klustered (Part 2)
35 - Ida Maria - In The End

Notes
I've been a bit distracted since the last podcast. Anyway, these are some of the songs I've been listening for the past 7 months. I'm already working on part 3.

Thank you for listening.
Share this podcast if you can. Leave comments here. I want to hear from you! Happy New Year!
BTW, how do you do a LJ cut?
BigJB

hi, hello, my name is Lauren,
these are a few things I've found in my attic, and some things about me.





"Tattooed Family" 1955 Todd Walker
it was folded up in a box, so that's where the lines came from



( this post is full of pictures! )

So its not the usual start but the guy i am tentatively involved with I met in a psychiatric facility... so I need some tunes. I love Bob Dylan and Cohen and those raspy folk voices, but I also love shit that has never been heard and fast tempos.

So i need some songs about falling for a psychiatric patient/being one, also he is a recovering drug addict (but really, the "relationship" is great). We aren't dating until he has been sober for 3 months and we are both stabilized on our medication.

So... what do you have?

I have over 50 items for sale; some vintage, most brand new! Includes many sizes, from XS-XL (even some petite jeans) from places such as Urban Outfitters, H&M, Delias, etc.!
* Shipping from the US
* Paypal Only
* Prices are negotiable (and do not include shipping)
FIND ALL 50+ ITEMS HERE!

Songs about unrequited love. Thank you.

not that i've really exerted a considerable amount of energy towards finding them. i like my lucky strike blues just fine anyway.

'home' has been playin' on my mind in recent history, not because i'm sick for it but because the word doesn't really exist in french.

the concept, therefore, is not exactly universal, which is a peculiar notion.

this is my hometown ["Madtown, Dairyland"]:


this is where i'm crashing currently [Paris]:


and i like to think i nurse some sort of spiritual connection with this place [Berlin]:


where are you from (originally, currently and spiritually)?

I was recently remembering my friend Sarah, who used to put stickers on practically *everything*. She had one of those huge see-through tabletop Mac's and it was *decked out* in awesome stickers she got at gigs, random New York stores, and what not (cool Azn friends...etc)

So show me your laptops (or cellys). (Hey, a nerd has to get her kicks! And I don't mean Nike's!)



PIC#1: I'm a minimalist, and this Rough Trade sticker, that I got from some cool lesbians in London ('cause I bought Crass's album "Penis Envy") is on my Burberryesque Nokia E63. Sadly, my laptop [a Toshiba sattelite series] is bare (but used to have a ninja turles -specifically Rafael- sticker).

PIC#2: random laptop that I googled